Ray Williams (rugby union coach)

Ray Williams, OBE (25 August 1927 – 3 December 2014) was the world's first professional full-time rugby union coach.[3] He was the national coaching director of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, devising the strategies that led Wales to dominate rugby in Europe at that time.[3] He was also a major influence on former Australian national coach Bob Templeton.[4]

Not to be confused with Ray Williams (rugby union, born 1927).
Ray Williams
Birth nameRaymond Williams
Date of birth(1927-08-25)25 August 1927[1]
Place of birthWrexham, Wales[2]
Date of death3 December 2014(2014-12-03) (aged 87)
Place of deathHaverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Rugby union career
Position(s) Fly-half
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1940s–50s
1940s–50s		 London Welsh
Northampton		 ()

A talented player in his younger years, Williams played for London Welsh, Northampton, Moseley, and East Midlands.[5] He was selected to trial for the Welsh national team as a flyhalf.[6] Williams trained as a PE teacher at Loughborough College and coached the West Midland's region in England. He also staged courses to help teachers become rugby coaches and was the driving force behind the creation of England rugby's coaching manual in the early 1950s.[5] Williams was appointed to the WRU in 1967, and began a transformation of Welsh rugby through conferences and courses which gave Wales more than 300 qualified coaches by the mid-1970s.

He became an administrator with the WRU in the 1980s and 90s. Williams was Tournament Director of the Rugby World Cup in Wales in 1991.[7] He received an OBE for services to rugby in 1995.[7] Williams was awarded the International Rugby Board’s Vernon Pugh award for distinguished service in 2014,[6] just weeks before his death after a battle with cancer.[4]

References
  1. "Ray Williams". The Times. 30 January 2015.
  2. "Ray Williams 1927 – 2014". The King's School Peterborough. 30 January 2015.
  3. "Coaching trailblazer Ray Williams dies". ESPN Scrum. 3 December 2014.
  4. Harris, Bret (6 December 2014). "Australian rugby owes a lot to Welshman Ray Williams" (PDF). The Australian. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015.
  5. Richards, Huw (2014). "Ray Williams: Rugby union coach who transformed the way the game was approached in Wales and Australia". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  6. Sheehan, Rory (4 December 2014). "Welsh rugby 'revolutionary' Ray Williams dies, aged 87". The Leader. Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  7. Rugby: First Minister helps honour Ray Williams OBE. Wales Online. 2010.
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